


Seeds of Discord Part 36

by kbj1123



Series: Wonder Woman & Captain America [37]
Category: Captain America - All Media Types, The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types, Wonder Woman - All Media Types
Genre: Action/Adventure, Adventure & Romance, Crossover Pairings, F/M, Marvel Universe, One True Pairing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-05
Updated: 2015-04-05
Packaged: 2018-03-21 10:15:59
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,127
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3688434
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kbj1123/pseuds/kbj1123
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Someone or something is causing violent riots to erupt all over the U.S., and whatever it is, it wreaks havoc with both Wonder Woman's health and Bruce Banner's ability to keep his rage in check.</p><p>While Steve is away, Diana has a revelation.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Seeds of Discord Part 36

The wind whips through Diana’s hair so roughly that she thinks it might dread if she goes any faster. So she does it, just to see. She flies further up into the pure blue, through and past the damp, wispy clouds and into the vast air. Steve was called away on a mission this morning. It was five a.m. They’d only fallen asleep an hour earlier, and next thing he was packing his duffel, strapping on his shield. By six, Tony was waiting to drive Steve and himself to Andrews AFB for parts unknown, for an unspecified period. Diana hates goodbyes when it comes to Steve. She doesn’t worry much about his safety; she has complete faith in Steve’s ability to take care of himself and others. Plus, bad news has a way of traveling quickly. If he needs her, she will find him. Tony looked so reluctant and sorry, watching them say their goodbyes. Steve hardly even spoke. He just stared into her eyes until his own began to tear, and he kissed her. “As soon as I can,” he started to say, but she broke off the sentence with another kiss. She already knew. 

So now, she takes advantage of this lonely, untethered feeling and soars into a sky almost as clear and blue as Steve’s eyes. She holds her arms straight alongside her torso and imagines some goddess has thrown her like a spear, toward an imaginary giant. Whatever threatens the world below, Diana will shoot through it as cleanly as Athena’s spear or one of Artemis’ arrows. Maybe someday she’ll go so fast, she’ll manage to break the sound barrier. It’s been much too long since she’s flown like this. It’s been decades, actually. 

It occurs to her she is never going to outfly her thoughts or her pain. There’s simply too much, and even as the sun warms her, the air is cold. Would Apollo help her if she got too close to the sun? Only if he still needs her (which he probably does). Otherwise, he’d let her burn and crash like Icarus. Steve would never let her get that close. All Steve wants is to keep her safe. He wants to make the world safe so that eventually they can stop doing this, settle into some domestic harmony, do good works, and raise a family. Isn’t that what they both want? 

What she wants is to fly faster. Somewhere West, in a place called Central City, she’d heard that there was a man who could run faster than the speed of sound. She heard he could suppress tsunamis with his vibrations. She doubts even he could outrun emotional distress, however. She wanted this. She wanted to be in Man’s World, with Steve, and make it a better place. She doesn’t belong in Themyscira, at least not anymore. She doesn’t want to rule, nor does she want to live in a gilded cage. Perhaps that is what she’s trying to outfly. If she settles down now, she will not merely abandon the world she’s sworn to protect. She is necessary to its protection but not solely so. There will always be other heroes. 

No, if she and Steve resign their commissions, turn in their respective shield and lasso, they abandon who they are. Loving Steve fiercely and completely, loving their potential children fiercely, would not be enough. While there are injustice and real danger, she cannot simply turn her back and hope someone else fights for peace. She knows Steve feels the same, deep down. She did not walk away from one protected island to exist in a different one called marital domesticity. If she were to conceive now, she honestly isn’t sure what she would want to do. She might pray to the goddesses or her mother to come and relieve her somehow. She and Steve are warriors and servants of the world. They cannot serve fully and have the kind of life together they’ve said they want. Neither of them will walk away from their responsibilities willingly. She knows that he knows this as well. One day they will both be ready. Steve thinks he’s ready now, but she knows better. One day though, she, Diana Rogers, with Steve at her side, will stand outside of SHIELD for a press conference. She will transform into Wonder Woman on camera. She will answer questions. Then, she will transform again, and hand over her costume to the director of the Smithsonian, perhaps, and she will walk away. Then they will have their children, their typical, idyllic lives, their jobs, and their mundane habits. She does want that. She doesn’t want it quite yet. She wishes she did, though.

She practices some hairpin turns, creating sharp angles in the air. She stops short from full speed and hovers, standing on nothing. She is so high up that she can’t see the ground. She wonders who can see her from their towers and control booths. As if from a diving board, she dives head-first, spiraling straight down until she lands very lightly on the roof of SHIELD’s arboretum. It is only 7:00. Diana knows this because through the glass ceiling she sees that the waterfall has just turned on. From where she stands, she sees Bruce take up his meditation position in their spot by the lemon tree. It’s the first time she has seen him there since that morning almost a month ago. She silently wishes peace and love to her friend, and takes off again. “There is another loved one,” she thinks, “who feels lost on his journey.” Here is the true consequence of the goddess of discord’s presence on Earth: it isn’t the meltdown of relationships. It isn’t the sicknesses she and Bruce have endured, and it isn’t the kidnappings or battle injuries. Eris’s true legacy, Diana realizes, will be to have shoved them all off of the paths they thought were so clear and bright. Eris has made it so that each of them must now re-evaluate the strength of their relationships with each other and their commitments to their planned journeys through life. 

In an odd way, Diana feels gratitude for Eris’s presence, despite the pain the goddess has caused. She whispers a prayer to Athena for guidance and to Demeter for clarity.

In the distance, somewhere near the DC Mall, she hears disturbance and flies in its direction. She spends the next two hours patrolling, disrupting crimes in progress. By 9:00, Wonder Woman has prevented a stabbing, three muggings, a carjacking, and a gang fight. She’s finished moping. By the time she returns to headquarters she feels more alive than she has in such a long time. She knows what she needs to do.


End file.
